In the latest draft budget, the government of Andrej Babiš (ANO) cut money for defense spending from the original 175.79 billion crowns to 154.79 billion crowns, which represents only 1.73 percent of GDP. Babiš himself claims that all defense expenditures will be 185 billion crowns, i.e. 2.06 percent of GDP. However, this 185 billion also includes the expenses of other ministries, including transport and the interior.
“I don’t think that Rutte will let this pass,” one of the diplomats contacted told the newspaper. “I don’t think he wants to give Trump an excuse to join NATO,” he added.
The newspaper Politico called spending on ministries other than just defense a “numbers game” and “budget gymnastics”. He mentioned that Babiš is trying to pay for the required two percent, for example, by partially completing the D11 highway, which would connect Prague with the Polish border.
According to the letter, Petra Guasti, associate professor of political science at Charles University in Prague, stated that the motivation for the Babiš government’s ‘creative accounting’ is primarily the desire to spend more elsewhere, including social security, and also the Czech prime minister’s historically low interest in defense issues.
At last year’s summit in The Hague, NATO member states agreed to increase defense spending to five percent of GDP, 3.5 percent of which goes directly to defense spending and 1.5 percent to infrastructure, for example. “However, Prague is moving in the opposite direction,” states Politico.
According to him, it will “probably” upset other European governments, which also face difficult compromises due to increasing expenditures, often at the expense of social ones.
“After The Hague, we all thought that two percent must be a thing of the past. We are all trying in this regard. Staying around two percent without plans to increase it, or even go lower, will not help NATO to strengthen,” said another diplomat.
In addition, the Czech government also risks “angering the White House”. “President Trump expects NATO allies to keep their promise of five percent of GDP on defense spending,” said Anna Kelly from the White House press department, who was asked by Politico about planned Czech defense spending.
Fial’s government did the same
Even the previous government of Petr Fiala (ODS) included money for other departments in defense expenditures. In 2024, it gave 177.1 billion crowns for defense, 166.8 billion was used up, stated the then Minister of Defense Jana Černochová (ODS), stating that this represents 2.09 percent of GDP.
In 2024, defense alone managed 164.3 billion crowns. By the end of the year, it was able to use 159 billion, leaving 5.3 billion undrawn. “So the Ministry of Defense spent 1.99 percent of GDP. The defense expenditures of other institutions amounted to 12.8 billion, while they did not spend five billion crowns,” the department said at the time.
NATO subsequently stated in its annual evaluation that the Czech Republic spent 2.08 percent of GDP on defense in 2024.
Compared to the budget of the current government, however, the budget includes expenses outside the Ministry of Defense in the amount of more than 30 billion crowns. In the case of Petr Fiala’s government, it was less than 13.
